I Created A Handpainted Pop-Up Painting

My name is Alex Baams, I am a Dutch Artist.
About a year ago, I felt stuck in my development as a young artist. Because of this, I stopped painting on canvasses for a while. I used, this time, to search for a way with which I could combine movement and painting, an (until then) unspoken passion of mine.

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After many months of research in my studio, I made Monkeys on my back. This was my first work to combine two techniques: Pop-up art and painting.

During my research, I wanted to start by sketching. But with pop-up work that is almost impossible. So instead I started cutting out gray cardboard and later on I moved to using proper archival cardboard. Painting and assembling the work was the most exciting part. The work seemed to create itself. It had to be made at this moment in my artistic development.

Monkeys on my back is a work about everything you have to accept about yourself, and all the things you have to let go in order to move on.